An Investigation into the factors that affect a squash ball bounce

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Introduction

Will Busby Squash ball Investigation Coursework

An Investigation into the factors that affect a squash ball bounce

Introduction

I am going to investigate 3 different factors that will affect the bounce of a squash ball. Gravity pulls everything down to the ground; if an object falls then gravity pulls the object back down to earth. In the investigation I will be investigating how the bounce of the ball is different from different heights or if the bounce differs on different surfaces and how the bounce is different at different temperatures e.g. If the ball is hotter then the particles inside the ball will obtain more energy then collide with each other and the walls of the ball more often causing more pressure on the ball so when the ball bounces there will be more pressure on the walls of the ball causing it to bounce higher. If the ball is dropped from a higher height then gravity will cause the ball to fall at a higher velocity and have more gravitational and kinetic energy and when the ball bounces the pressure will be greater on the ball so the ball will bounce higher. If there is a different surface like wood then the ball would bounce higher than it would on carpet because the particles are more packed together so the ball will bounce higher.

Factor 3 (Different temperatures)

Evaluation

The experiment went well except for when we couldn’t get the water baths so we was forced to do an alternate method but we made sure that when we could get the water baths we did the experiment again to get better and more accurate results (we included the alternate method in the graphs to compare the difference). The rest of the equipment was easy to supply and set up. We got lots of anomalous results for the temperature experiment when using the alternate method maybe due to over or under heating or by a human error e.g. waiting too long to bounce the ball. We got 2 anomalous results for the height experiment which are circled on the graph maybe because the height wasn’t properly measured, the only anomalous result for the water bath method of the temperature was the 0°c reading because we only did that to get more of a range of results and we never done 10°c and 20°c so the mark on the graph was different or because the temperature wasn’t completely at 0°c because we used ice and the temp wasn’t completely at 0°c which maybe to cause it to bounce higher.

To improve the investigation I could of done the experiments maybe just once more to get even more accurate results or I shouldn’t of done 2 factors instead of 3 so I could of concentrated more on the other factors.

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But due to the conditions we are experimenting in the graph for the height for the ball dropped will not be a constant. As it may begin to lose energy as the heights increase, due to air resistance. But it is unlikely this will occur.

No bounce height is higher than its drop height, as I stated in my prediction. This scatter graph compares the bounce height of the ball against the drop height. The addition of a trend line illustrates several things. It shows a predicted bounce height for any drop height between 0

However it does not support the statement that doubling the height will half the time. This is because there is a steady decrease in time with a curve shown in the graph. This shows that the biggest decrease of time taken is at the beginning and the values become less spread apart making a curve.

Also, the hotter the ball is, the firmer it is and the quicker it gets its shape back, therefore it loses less energy and then has more energy to use to bounce higher. Therefore I think that the lower the temperature of the ball, the lower the bounce height because

And so I can have an accurate average to put into a graph. The science behind this is, the chemical, which is used in my arm to put the ball at the height it is placed at. The larger the height of the ball the larger the force of G.PE

rubber, plastic. I will also make sure both the ball and surface are not damaged after each experiment. My prediction is that at each height the ball is dropped from, it will behave in the same way, lose some energy and will reach about 3/4 proportionally of the height at which it is dropped.

And therefore, the clockwise/anti-clockwise moment also increases. The graph for distance from table against change in height shows that when the distance were relatively low (10, 20cm ), the increase of change in height was also fairly small (increasing from 0.6 to 0.9).